new thread
So I hit terminal length about a year ago and my hair's gotten thinner since, despite having absolutely no family history of MPB. I found out today that I have seborrheic dermatitis, and I've been happy all day, figuring that it's probably the reason for my hair reaching what I believed was a premature terminal/thinning. I'm curious though, does anyone know whether or not seborrheic dermatitis is actually relevant to hair growth/thinning?
Hi Gylfi,
A couple of years ago i remember a post from one of the regular users back then who made reference to the same or similar type of Dermatitis. You could probably look it up in MLHH's Archives section.
Hope this helps!
- Ken in San Francisco
Gylfi,
Long time, no see! Good to see your post. I think your question is a good one, but I don't have an answer. This type of dermatitis is very annoying, but I'm not sure if it could cause hair thinning. I did a good bit of research on it because I have the same thing. It was a relief to me to find out about it for a different reason though. I had a rough red patch of skin on my face and I was scared that it was skin cancer or something! I found out that this dermatitis is not contagious and that the cause of it is uncertain. It might be linked to a yeast that occurs naturally in the environment and partly be genetic. I'm not satisfied though that the treatment for dermatitis is to control the symptoms rather than attacking the cause, but if medics do not know the cause, then I suppose this is the best we can do. I would imagine there is not much cause for alarm in medical circles from dermatitis since it is not life-threatening in any way, just an annoyance.
My "folk" logic tells me that dermatitis would affect one's hair growth, but that is only because I realize the scalp is the prime area that flakes and gets all irritated from the excessive renewal of skin cells. But, we must remember that the hair is grown below the scalp; the follicles are probably under there doing their thing just fine. My hair is thinner because of MPB and probably stress and environment, and I personally don't think my hair is thinner because of dermatitis. When I was younger, I had some of the thickest hair imaginable, and even then some of the dermatitic symptoms.
It could be that you might try some different shampoos and such to knock out the mainfestation of the dermatitis in your case, and then mark if your hair becomes thicker or does not change. Of course this is a long-term trial, but without finding medical research to suggest a ready answer to your question, the only way to find out what's happening.
But the good thing for you is that even if your hair is really thinner, from what I remember, it is not too much to worry over since it is so superabundant that you still appear to have about twice as much hair as the average bloke.
What bothers me here is that sometimes posters create the illusion that everyone can grow their hair past waist-length and so forth. The truth is that lots of us have shorter terminal lengths, and this is OK. Lengths of various things on we guys vary tremendously, and we should just count ourselves lucky to have them, whatever length they are.
Hi Gilfy!
I have the same echzema as you do, and it has a lot to do with stress and emotions. I did a treatment and it helped, altough it didn't stop it, as you may know it's chronic. I did the treatmente a little more than 2 years ago.
You should know, however, that my growth rate has always been average and sometimes more than average, despite this problem. So I don't believe it's what's causing your terminal lenght.
If you have some information that says otherwise, I'd like to read it tough =) I used to read about that problem and I never found anything that related it to baldness or growth stopping.
I wish you good luck dealing with it =)